At least 11 civilians were killed and three others, including a man and a child, were wounded when armed men attacked a bus on the main road in the Iskandariya neighbourhood of south Baghdad, an Iraqi security source said.

A group of fighters standing on the highway opened fire at civilian cars, killing three people and wounding five near Latifiya, a town 40km south of the capital and about 10km north of the site of the Iskandariya attack.

Another four people were killed when a salvo of mortar rounds rained down on Latifiya.

A number of Kurdish peshmerga fighters serving in the Iraqi army and some Mahdi Army militia members were killed during a two-hour gun battle in Baghdad's Bayaa district, Iraqi police sources said.

Bodies found

Iraqi police have found 27 dead bodies during the past 24 hours in various neighbourhoods in Baghdad, Iraqi police sources said.